BY BRIAN BEUTLER

& CROOKED MEDIA

Friday, March 15, 2019

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CHRISTCHURCH MOSQUE ATTACKS

A member of the international white-separatist movement murdered 49 people in mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and live-streamed his evil deed on Facebook. Police in Christchurch have arrested three people in connection with the slaughter.

Like so many white nationalists, the killer was steeped in racist conspiracy theories, including one that accuses Jews of masterminding a silent “white genocide”—intentionally diluting whiteness out of western society by engineering the infiltration of immigrants, Muslims, and other minorities into white-majority countries, for the purpose of encouraging race-mixing.

Also, like so many white nationalists, the killer was fluent in the online idioms of the alt-right. His lengthy manifesto, thick with memes designed to provoke solidarity among fellow Internet racists, praised President Trump as "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose,” and a useful agent for bringing about a civil war in the United States that will result in a safe-haven nation for whites.

Trump, always incapable of empathy, issued the increasingly recognizable, tin-eared condolences he tends to tweet after incidents like these—offering the victims “warmest sympathy,” and “best wishes.” Previously, he wished the victims of neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, VA, “best regards.”

The massacre has revived long-simmering criticisms of large Internet technology companies, which create and host platforms where these racist communities fester, and then provide their murderous members the tools they need to make sure their names, words, and actions go viral.

But it should also provoke a long-overdue discussion about how to stem the spread of transnational, fascistic, white separatism, and the role that the American right and the president of the United States have played (and continue to play) in fanning it. Trump’s brittle grip on political power is based in part on his dishonest mantra that the United States is under siege by violent Muslims and Mexicans. His administration has taken affirmative steps to weaken our government’s already resource-starved efforts to police and root out white-nationalist violence. He is in many ways a weak president, but he is an exceptionally dangerous one, in large part because he emerged at a time when a message like his had intensifying allure on the right, and he’s never had any interest in expanding his appeal beyond that base. We need to recognize that getting him out of power through legitimate means as quickly as possible is urgently necessary, and whenever that happens we need to resist the temptation to believe the virus, of which Trump is merely a symptom, has been eradicated. It is multiplying.

Children around the world skipped classes today to march on city centers and international capitals, including Washington, DC, in protest of the collective failure of political leaders to address climate change. Today’s strike was the culmination of a series of actions inspired by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden. Marchers in the U.S. have coalesced around a list of demands from their elected officials, including a Green New Deal, the declaration of a national climate emergency, and the preservation of public lands and wildlife.

President Trump has vetoed the resolution terminating his national emergency declaration, indicating he intends to ignore Congress and raid public funds to build a border wall on seized private lands. The House will begin the process of attempting to override his veto on March 26, but it’s unlikely that two-thirds of either chamber will vote to make the resolution law. See you in court, asshole.

North Korea has threatened to withdraw from nuclear disarmament negotiations with the United States, and resume missile tests.

Former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates continues to assist federal prosecutors with “several ongoing investigations,” prompting Special Counsel Robert Mueller to request another two-month sentencing delay. A big collusion indictment may still be coming.

A New York appeals court ruled that Trump can not defer a defamation lawsuit filed by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice who claims Trump groped her without consent. Trump called her and the many other women who have accused him of similar abuse “liars.”

Trump claims there is a “Jexodus” movement of Jews out of the Democratic Party and into the GOP, because Jews are so ecstatic about his decision to move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. 1) There is no such movement. 2) “An exodus, but for Jews” is just an exodus. 3) Republicans are passionately and sincerely offended by the implication that Jews are motivated by dual loyalty and so they will demand that Congress pass a reso-hahaha, no, they are full of shit.

Bernie Sanders bonked his head and got stitches.

Beto once belonged to a famous group of hacktivists who call themselves Cult of the Dead Cow.

A Trump-campaign foreign policy adviser and an Australian senator are among the high-profile right-wing figures to say the Christchurch killer’s grievances were reasonable, even if his method was not. Trump himself condemned the massacre before ranting about how we need to build a border wall to stop a fictional “invasion” of murderous illegal immigrants, and claiming that white nationalism is not a growing threat. These people are sick.

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